Legacies
by Natsuki
Summary: A series of vignettes wherein Cissie King -- Arrowette -- remembers Bart Allen and begins to come to terms with the reintroduction of her costumed personality as shown in the Wonder Girl miniseries.


The funeral is surreal; most of the JLA is there, generations represented in the rows of seats and the overhanging legacies that almost everyone here had borne at some point or another. She sees Liberty Belle -- Jesse Quick, she remembered with a start, who had once babysat Bart -- with her mother and husband (himself another legacy), Stargirl sitting with her step-father...

And here she is, sitting in her costume next to her mother, former Arrowette and current seated next to one another, though few remember either of them. Bonnie is stoic and calm, a far cry from how she once was, and Cissie feels the same icily numb rage that followed Dr. Money's murder. In a sense, she envies Cassie, who furiously denouncing the Rogues who killed Bart on the stage, until Robin steps forward and she collapses into his arms, sobbing. Cassie's temper is explosive when someone seriously harms her friends, but it's an outlet. Cissie's is deadly, and she knows it and refuses to indulge it again. There is no Superboy to catch her arrows this time, no Bart to drag her to a school dance and be oblivious and make her laugh afterwards.

Robin, Cassie, Beast Boy and Cyborg carry Bart's coffin away. Cissie blinks, and they are gone, leaving the crowd to mourn.

* * *

"I put the costume back on, Bart, and I didn't hesitate anymore! I don't think I want to do it as much as I once did, but I know that I _can_ now, if I need to." Cissie is sprawled on her dorm bed, phone to her ear and a smile upon her face -- triumphant, victorious and happy. "But Supergirl just doesn't replace you in the group. I kept trying to make jokes about how we were back together and Robin was all 'I'm glad you're having fun but there are bad guys to beat up'.. Like we didn't joke around before. But still, it wasn't really the same."

There's a laugh from the other end of the line, the voice lower than she remembers but it's _still_ Bart. "So I guess Superboy was right, you did come back." He's teasing, she knows he is, because it's been the equivalent of centuries for him since Superboy's death and the pain's been washed smooth by time and he can laugh about things that were said without wincing at it.

Cissie's also come to terms with it, mostly by trying to help Cassie through her grief; it might not have worked all that well, with that damn cult and everything else that's been going on, but Cissie can look at photos now and laugh rather than cry, even if Cassie still lingers over some of the pictures and looks like the most miserable of the miserable. But Bart is talking _now_, and Cissie jerks her attention back to the phone. "... she reminds me a lot of Carol, actually. But she really doesn't have the same sense of humor, you know? But still..."

"Girl troubles, Scarecrow?"

"I do too have a brain!"

The old joke makes them both laugh. Bart forgets about his girl troubles and Cissie can almost see the smile on his face through the phone. "So, if I see an archer-girl jumping rooftops in L.A., I can assume you're in town for a Wendy episode and just decided to help out the cops for old times' sake?" There's an actual hesitation before he continues. "I'm... glad you're back, Cissie. Hey! We should do something! I'll pick you up next Friday, okay?"

She envisions how _that_ would look to other people -- particularly this girl that he's mentioned before -- and just reflects that Bart hasn't changed in essentials: he's still oblivious. "Sure. I wanted to talk to some of the Wendy writers, anyway. Take care of yourself! I gotta get to bed, it's late here."

"Oh right, time zones. Night, Cissie!"

He's never been one for planning ahead, so when he doesn't show up on that Friday, she thinks nothing of it. Two hours later, when Cassie arrives at the dorm, tear-streaked and clinging to Cissie's shoulders, and sobs out that Bart has been killed by the Rogues, she wonders just what arrows would be most useful against the various members.

* * *

People knew that, of all people, Bart would never have wanted his wake to be mournful. So, there is laughter, as people share stories about the shenaningans that he'd pulled when younger. Some of Cissie's numb fury begins to fade, listening. Snips of conversation are audible from outside the clusters of people with drinks in their hands--

"-- never admitted it, but that home run actually _was_ because of Impulse. But Myrg went back to Doiby's rule and it was all to the good in the end--"

"-- read the entire San Fran _library_ and freaked out the patrons, but hearing Mark Twain quotes was worth it--"

"He proved us all wrong. He was definitely the Flash."

Cissie swallows around a lump in her throat at that, restraining the urge to yell that he was _more_ than just that, that he would have been _better_ than just a name and a legacy. However, that legacy meant more to Bart than Cissie's did to her, so she bites back the angry words and goes to look for her mother.

Bonnie is laughing at something a redheaded man -- at least, Cissie _thinks_ he's a redhead, but his hair's close-cropped and light-colored -- is saying, and there's an ease that Cissie hasn't ever seen in her mother's frame, so she wanders over. There's a dark-haired little girl clinging to the man's leg, who he hoists up to his shoulder one-armed as she approaches. "... so Ollie's dangling from this wire, and it's all Mia and I can do to not laugh our asses off at him because it's just so _him_ to try to make a huge gesture and f-" He looks up at the little girl and clears his throat. "mess it up."

"Speaking of Ollie, is he here tonight?" Bonnie asks, spotting Cissie and waving her over, wrapping an arm around her shoulders when she nears. The redhead double-takes at Cissie, then grins broadly.

"Yeah, he's around. I'll have to borrow someone's camera for the reaction. I'm Roy Harper, by the way, and this is Lian." The little girl waves from her shoulder-perch. He offers his hand to Cissie, who takes it and notes the calluses -- familiar ones, because she's got the same ones -- and the light switches on as she returns the earlier grin with a smile of her own.

"Cissie King."

Roy's grin broadens as he looks her up and down, then winks at Bonnie. "I'm going to go get that camera."

She feels Bonnie stiffen slightly beside her, and looks up at her mother, following her gaze to a blonde man with a goatee who is staring at them from about ten feet away. If it weren't for the shocked (and faintly appalled look) upon his face, he might''ve been handsome in the older sort of way -- though he still looked younger than Bonnie, somehow. "Ollie."

"... Bonnie?"

A camera-flash goes off behind them, and Cissie turns to see Roy there, holding a little digital camera (she suspects it's Robin's, given the miniature R-logo on the side, and she wonders how he'd gotten ahold of it and then decides, all in an instant, that it's Better Not To Know) and smirking at Ollie. "I'm keeping _this_ one," he says. "Since I didn't exactly get a photo of your reaction the _last_ time."

"Now's not the time, Roy." Ollie's voice is familiar, and Cissie stares at him. The only association she has with the voice is 'politics', so there's something fishy... "It's a _wake_, not one of your Titans or Outsider parties. Bonnie? We need to _talk_."

Bonnie's smile is slightly edged, as if she's finding some sort of ironic amusement in this situation. "As you said, Ollie, now's not the time. Here's my number and address. I'm sure you can find it when it _is_ the right time for us to talk about this."

Cissie's suspicions aroused, she edges over to where Roy is showing the photograph to Lian and snickering. "I hate it when adults do that," she says to him, and earns a wry smile from him. "They just start going off on these cryptic topics as if no-one else could take a guess, and it's like, just say it aloud already! God!"

Roy laughs without restraint. "Your mom dated Ollie about sixteen years ago -- it didn't end really well. Let's go get something to drink. You're the Olympic Gold Medalist, right? I think I've seen you on Wendy, too -- nice stunt work. Do you prefer a compound bow, or a recurve?"

Distracted by archery topics, Cissie lets herself be led away from her rather smug-looking mother and a sputtering Ollie.

* * *

Author's Blurb: It's rather disjointed and was difficult to write -- particularly older-Bart, because while his appearance in Flash, the Fastest Man Alive was technically him, the characterization in that storyarc was terrible -- but I wanted to explore something of Cissie's feelings about putting the costume back on in the Wonder Girl miniseries and who she'd tell. Bart's funeral and wake was also a set-up for something I've wanted to poke at for a while, but haven't found much that actually explores it: the idea of Oliver Queen being Cissie's biological father. I just couldn't go further than this, really, because the thing that ties these three snapshots together is Bart.

That said, have fun playing spot-the-reference. wry

I plan on more, but I'm a terribly slow writer at best.


End file.
